“Michael Hauge has created a formula around the five turning points and six stages you need to write a good story. Eduardo L. Lozano created this infographic - The Six Stage Plot Structure - illustrating Hauge's formula for writing successful screenplays.”
Via Jim Lerman

Louise Robinson-Lay's insight:

Stages and scaffolds help writers to find their way through. They often have no shortage of good ideas but shaping them is hard and that's where tools like this are useful until they can create an internal story map.

Explore Shakespeare scholarship in new ways. Understanding Shakespeare is a partnership between JSTOR Labs and the Folger Shakespeare Library. This new and open tool enables anyone to pick a play, click on a line, and instantly see articles on JSTOR that reference the text.

Louise Robinson-Lay's insight:

JStor have a line by line Shakespeare resource in conjunction with the Folger Library. You can select a line and then link to research articles that mention that line. This is a really comprehensive resource for English teachers.

Join us at the Melbourne Mini Maker Faire Come one come all to the Melbourne Mini Maker Faire Community Day on Saturday 19 March 2016. The Victorian Department of Education and Training in association with the Knox Innovation Opportunity and Sustainability Centre (KIOSC) and Swinburne University of Technology are planning an exciting experience by providing…

“ Teachers are always on the lookout for ways to foster questioning skills in students. First of all, let’s define our subject. At skillsyouneed.com the topic of questioning is covered succinctly in this article. It asks us to consider why we question things. So why do we? We question to gather information. It helps us learn. We communicate and understand others through questioning. It helps us explore the world we live in. We also test acquired knowledge with good questioning skills. They are skills that serve us in school and in everything beyond it. Curiosity and questioning are what keep us interested and engaged in life.”
Via John Evans

Learning is a complex cognitive phenomena that has been and is still the central theme of a wide variety of scientific studies. The overarching question ‘how we learn what we learn’ intrigued scientists across different disciplines and generated tons of literature on the topic. Informative insights coming out of these studies have not only demystified the workings of human cognition but have also shaped pedagogy and teaching methodology in unprecedented ways (e.g. multiple intelligence theory and learning styles). In this month's Books for Teachers, we are sharing with you five popular books on the topic of learning. You may want to bookmark and save them to read in your upcoming vacation. Enjoy

“ At School 21, the combination of teaching wellbeing, oracy (speaking skills), and project-based learning empowers students to create exceptional work that makes a real-world difference.”
Via Allan Shaw

While I might have used different semantics for these three foci in preparing students to be adaptable in a changing world, these plus a solid knowledge base, literacy and numeracy make a potent package.

“ Founded in 1943, ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is an educational leadership organization dedicated to advancing best practices and policies for the success of each learner. Our 175,000 members in 119 countries are professional educators from all levels and subject areas––superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members.”
Via Adrian Bertolini

Louise Robinson-Lay's insight: The science of learning is a book produced by this not for profit organisation that outline some of the key ways that students learn. You can download it from this website.

“ While project-based learning has existed for decades, design thinking has recently entered the education lexicon, even though its history can be traced back to Herbert A. Simon's 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial. So why the resurgence of these ideas? Lately, I have heard teachers and school leaders express a common frustration: "We are _______ years into a _______ initiative, and nothing seems to have changed." Despite redesigning learning spaces, adding technology, or even flipping instruction, they still struggle to innovate or positively change the classroom experience. Imagine innovation as a three-legged stool. Many schools have changed the environment leg, but not the other two legs: the behaviors and beliefs of the teachers, administrators, and students. Consider this conundrum: much of what we know about teaching comes from 16+ years of observation as students. In no other profession do you spend that much time watching the previous generation before being told to change everything once you take control. Without the framework or scaffolding for that change, it's truly unreasonable to tell educators, "OK, start innovating."”
Via John Evans

Sometimes, higher up in secondary school, we forget to teach reading strategies, assuming students already have them. In many cases this stops them from achieving their best. The strategies outlined in the graphic here would be a good start to putting reading back on the agenda and teaching it explicitly.

“ Innovate is a verb. It’s easy to talk about, far harder to do. Yet, it’s the DOING that matters most. The daily grind in the details of the ebb and flow of progress forward, bit by bit. It’s in the tiny microscopic changes we make that are often hard to detect until we zoom out, after a bit of time, and see the forward motion. There is this panic of “Oh my gosh every school needs a makerspace” when our schools are FILLED with the resources we have to make. Inside our kids and each other. When we move, things happen.”
Via John Evans

“ TED Ed is one of our favourite video resources we have been recommending for teachers over the last few years. It features short video explanations (usually less than 5 minutes long) covering different educational topics. The clips are professionally animated using a wide range of visual illustrations to hook in the viewers and keep them engaged. We have already shared some very good TED Ed videos on Math, writing, and several other subject areas. In today’s post we want to highlight some challenging TED Ed riddles to share with your students. These are short brain teasers to engage your students in problem solving activities in which they have to make use of different learning skills to solve the riddles. Here is the list:”
Via John Evans

"I’ve been traveling the country speaking on the power of a student’s voice in his or her own educational experience along with the need for transforming learning spaces in today’s schools. Both topics are very important to me not only for my own passion as an educator, but as a parent of two children. I’ve personally seen the impact a learning space can have on a child’s experience within the classroom. Additionally, I’ve been fortunate to have my children surrounded by caring educators who value the importance listening to students. This week I have the pleasure of speaking at Blackboard World in D.C.

When I arrived at Blackboard World, I knew the first stop I had to make, the student maker space. Blackboard invited students from all ages to participate in a day of creating their ideal learning environments. The company partnered with the Smithsonian to provide resources and guides to help facilitate the activities. Children would rotate between 5 stations throughout the day – each station lasting roughly thirty minutes."

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.